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Last night I got to thinking about days long past when I had plunged into the “pirate” life and moved aboard a sailboat which was my home in the Caribbean for seven years. My previous sailing had been on a twenty-four foot boat on a lake in Texas and a lot of vicarious trips with the likes of Joshua Slocum and Bernard Moitessier.

It is believed that Russia meddled with our election. We are outraged at the very audacity [forget the hypocrisy of our outrage] of the evil upstart Putin. We have been promised by both our President and our Vice-President that the U.S. will retaliate [make an attack or assault in return for a similar attack] because Russia must learn that it cannot get away with such an outrage.

Anything from anybody any time, any length, any subject, any format, and no rules beyond those set by the site managers but at the same time encouraging the interactive tone they strive for. I will probably often use this space as a link dump as there are many articles on the net which I find both interesting and informative but shouldn't push links off the "In the News" section. Also, I often am inclined to post some short comment that fits nowhere in particular and which I don't want to invest in a separate blog post to express, so I will just put it here but it will remain an open

I hope you, Dag reader, watched the most recent Republican debate centered on foreign policy. If so, I hope that on that one issue alone every candidate on stage convinced you that they are each and all disqualified but also that it is a critically dangerous possibility that one of these people becomes the leader of our country and the commander in chief of our armed forces. No one can turn the big ship of state around quickly but the CIC is in a position to, on their own, speed that big mutha right onto the rocks in short order.

I have nothing to add to these two pieces and little to say about them other than that I find them both "interesting" and, in the case of the second one, amusing. Maybe some here at Dag will too and maybe take them as food for thought as I also do. Fred does not mind stepping on toes or kicking shins and while I think he sometimes goes beyond the place where I would lay the line, I make it a point to read him regularly.

If, as may happen, I am otherwise engaged for a while, I will take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.

Open thread. Any subject, any length, any point of view. My first tidbit offering is a short interview that impressed me with the subjects sensible position on a very important topic but also her ability to present that view so well.

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In the News

In the summer of 2016, as WikiLeaks was publishing documents from Democratic operatives allegedly obtained by Kremlin-directed hackers, Julian Assange turned down a large cache of documents related to the Russian government WikiLeaks in its early years published a broad scope of information, including emails belonging to Sarah Palin and Scientologists, phone records of Peruvian politicians, and inside information from surveillance companies. But by 2016, WikiLeaks had switched course, focusing almost exclusively on Clinton and her campaign.

WASHINGTON — Kara Young, a biracial model who dated Donald J. Trump for two years before he married another model named Melania Knauss, remembers clearly bringing up her race with the real estate tycoon early in their relationship. As with so many issues, he steered the conversation to celebrity.

Trump tweeted about his sadness over the loss of "beautiful" Confederate statues. He again equated a man who fought to create the United States with a man who knowingly fought o destroy the United States. Robert E. Lee could have led the Union Army. His sister's son fought for the Union. 40% of Virginia fought for the Union. Robert E. Lee chose to be a terrorist.

Trump champions the "Lost Cause". It is not surprising that he is unaware of why many of these Confederate statues were erected. Take the Robert E. Lee statue in Baltimore as an example. The statue was erected in 1948. The statue was meant to intimidate black soldiers and sailors returning home from World War II. It served as a reminder to those black men and women that white people were still in control

“Our country’s greatest strengths are the diversity of its people and the principles of equal dignity and inclusion that unite us all. There are troubling events planned in our state in the coming weeks. This is an incredibly painful and difficult time for millions of Californians. For those who are wondering where we stand – the ACLU of California fully supports the freedom of speech and expression, as well as the freedom to peacefully assemble. We review each request for help on a case-by-case basis, but take the clear position that the First Amendment does not protect people who incite or engage in violence. If white supremacists march into our towns armed to the teeth and with the intent to harm people, they are not engaging in activity protected by the United States Constitution.

There were no decent people marching alongside the white supremacists and Nazis. Decent people cannot work in the Trump White House. If you support Trump, you support a racist. You are an enabler. If you work for Trump, you work for a Nazi sympathizer, you are an enabler. Jewish people who work for Trump are working for a man who encourages anti-Semites. Blacks who work for Trump work for a racist who is attacking the black community. Hispanics who work for Trump work for a bigot who called Mexicans racists.

There are no decent political people hired by Trump working in the White House. (General staff like maintenance, kitchen staff, etc are excluded)

WASHINGTON — The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement is off to a rocky start.

The Trump administration lectured Canada and Mexico on the failures of the current agreement at an opening news conference Wednesday morning, while behind closed doors negotiators began to seek significant concessions from America’s neighbors.

“We feel that Nafta has fundamentally failed many, many Americans and needs major improvement,” said Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, who is leading the United States team aiming to overhaul the 25-year-old agreement [....]

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao stood shoulder-to-shoulder Tuesday with President Donald Trump, the same man who railed against her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, last week and demanded that the lawmaker "get back to work" on health care."I stand by my man -- both of them," Chao said, when asked by reporters what she thought of her boss's criticism of her husband.

A Los Angeles-based tech company is resisting a federal demand for more than 1.3 million IP addresses to identify visitors to a website set up to coordinate protests on Inauguration Day — a request whose breadth the company says violates the Constitution.